Hearing held on Exeter Hospital hep C suits

Lawyer says patients are recovering

EXETER — Some of the 32 Exeter Hospital patients infected with hepatitis C during the hospital's outbreak last year have cleared the virus from their system, an attorney representing the hospital said.

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By Aaron Sanborn

seacoastonline.com

By Aaron Sanborn

Posted Jan. 22, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By Aaron Sanborn

Posted Jan. 22, 2013 at 2:00 AM

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EXETER — Some of the 32 Exeter Hospital patients infected with hepatitis C during the hospital's outbreak last year have cleared the virus from their system, an attorney representing the hospital said.

William Dailey Jr., senior partner at Sloane and Walsh in Boston, also said the hospital has been assisting the patients financially with their hepatitis C treatments by taking care of transportation costs, co-pays, medications not covered by insurance, and other expenses.

"Since the start, our primary concern has been for the patients and we want to make sure they get the treatment they needed, either through the hospital's physicians or by referral to other physicians," Dailey said. "This care seems to have been arranged and the patients are receiving the appropriate care as needed, and, fortunately, it appears some of the patients have cleared the virus."

Dailey was unable to say how many of the patients cleared the virus. A patient that has will always test positive for hepatitis C, but the virus is not active in their system or contagious, Dr. Thomas Sherman, a gastroenterologist with the hospital's affiliated Core Physicians, told the Hampton Union in June.

Dailey and the hospital's two other attorneys, Peter Mosseau and Scott O'Connell, were all present at a structuring conference Friday morning at Rockingham Superior Court to discuss how to move forward with the civil medical malpractice cases against the hospital.

Most of the attorneys representing the victims in the 26 lawsuits filed locally appeared at the hearing, and they were called into Judge Kenneth McHugh's chambers to discuss scheduling matters.

Dailey said an additional structuring hearing has been scheduled for Friday, March 29, to set deadlines for interrogatories, discovery and depositions. "It looks like witnesses will only be deposed once, and all the attorneys will be present for that deposition," he said. "It's a positive step for everyone."

Mark Abramson, a Manchester-based attorney representing 13 of the hepatitis C victims, said the attorneys agreed to a general outline for how to proceed with the cases.

Abramson said depositions of hospital administrators and other hospital staff or witnesses would likely take place during a two-week period in April.

"All the people that know something or should know something will be questioned during this period," Abramson said. "It looks like there's a good chance trials on these cases will start in April 2014." Abramson and the other attorneys representing the local victims previously confirmed that lawyers for Exeter Hospital had approached them about trying to settle the cases, but they have not gone into detail about the direction of those talks.

When asked about the chances of the cases being settled before a trial, Abramson declined to speculate. "It's impossible to say," he said. "Personally, I think we need to hear some testimony under oath first."

Dailey also declined to speculate about potential settlements.

Former hospital technician David Kwiatkowski, 33, is charged with seven counts of tampering with a consumer product and seven counts of illegally obtaining drugs. He is accused of infecting 32 Exeter Hospital patients with hepatitis C through drug diversion for his personal use.

As a traveling technician, Kwiatkowski worked in at least 17 other hospitals in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Arizona, Kansas and Georgia from 2003 to 2011. In addition to the 32 patients infected in Exeter, six patients in Kansas, five in Maryland and one in Pennsylvania have been identified as being infected with the same strain of hepatitis C as Kwiatkowski.

Besides Exeter Hospital, the other defendants named on the lawsuits include the staffing agencies that placed Kwiatkowski at hospitals across the country: Triage Staffing Inc., Maxim Staffing Solutions, American HealthCare Services Association and the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists.

Dailey said he didn't anticipate any other co-defendants being named in the civil suits.

Kwiatkowski has pleaded not guilty.

He is being held at the Strafford County House of Corrections awaiting trial, which is scheduled for October.